Quotes from Samuel Johnson

Poetry cannot be translation

Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world.

He that shall peruse the political pamphlets of any past reign will wonder why they were so eagerly read, or so loudly praised.

The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence.

The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

Such is the state of life that none are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing. When we have made it the next wish is to change again.

Clear your mind of "can't."

Oratory is the power of beating down your adversary's arguments and putting better in their place.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.

It is good sense applied with diligence to what was at first a mere accident, and which by great application grew to be called, by the generality of mankind, a particular genius.

Quotation is a good thing, there is a community of thought in it.

To prevent evil is the great end of government, the end for which vigilance and severity are properly employed.

Political liberty is only good insofar as it produces private liberty.

He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience. We have always protected the Americans; we may therefore subject them to government.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.

Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.